Forbidden Ballad
by Running Ninja
Summary: Why is the Ballad of the Goddess Zelda's lullaby backwards? A story made to answer that very question, told through the lifelong lovestory of a certain Zelda and a certain Link, who lived after Hylia and the Hero of the Goddess, in a time when singing the Ballad of the Goddess was punishable by death. Post-Skyward Sword.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

"Mama, they were beating him."

"Shush, Zelda, and how many times do I have to tell you? Don't call me mama."

"But Ikah, they were beating him. Just beating him for no reason. Why were they doing that?"

"This is a horrible, horrible time, Zelda. The world has become so backwards." With that the Sheikah guardian started singing to the little girl she was holding, singing quietly, singing backwards. It was a lullaby. A lullaby she'd sung the girl since they'd banned the ballad.

It was the ballad backwards.

The Goddess needed to hear her ballad in some form, Ikah thought. Because this little girl did carry the blood of the Goddess Hylia as she had been in the body of Zelda of Skyloft. That's why she carried the maiden's name. This little girl, the offspring of Goddess and a Hero in the time of this crooked world. She had no way of knowing how many generations this Zelda was from that one, but Ikah had given her life to this child and this was the child, she knew it. The last surviving descendent of Link and Zelda.

Outside the window, crouched under the ledge of the windowsill for the little cover it offered from the rain, a little boy cowered, covered in the blood from his beatings. He clutched ever so tightly to the little notes the woman sang the little girl, the precious, sacred song, the hope for peace.

The little boy sat and shivered. It was getting late, not that late meant much to him except cold. He stayed up late a lot. His parents held meetings in their house and Link listened to the plans of rebellion and fell asleep like that, fell asleep dreaming of freedom. Just last night they'd been barged in on, barged in on by clanky men in suits with swords. He was a fast boy, but they were too much taller. They were also merciless. Or had that been the torturers? Link didn't know if they had been different people.

He had no idea when his parents would be released from the torture chambers, if they ever were. But he counted himself lucky. He'd escaped with all limbs, both ears, two eyes, a tongue, and all his fingers.

He'd muddied up the funny mark on his left fist so well they hadn't noticed it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Opening of Part 1:**

"Show me."

The boy shook his head.

"Come on, show me. I promise I won't hurt you."

He eyed her, the memory of the time a guard had told him just that dancing behind his eyes. A whipping later, he didn't trust anybody. But, this girl, this girl…was she really nobody he could trust?

He opened his mouth the tiniest bit, then snapped it shut again, shaking his head once more.

The girl knew that getting this kid to trust her would take time. Lots of time. "Come on," she said, "I know they hurt you."

The boy shook his head again. _Never admit your weakness_, he thought, but it wasn't his words. Was it his father who had told him that? Or a guard who'd whipped him? The boy had been so young, he didn't even remember.

"Come on, you'll bleed out if you don't let me help you," the girl said.

The boy thought on this. Blood dribbled down his chin and all down him, even now. He couldn't swallow it back. It had been like this for…hours? He wasn't sure. But it had been like that for a whole lot of blood.

He opened up his mouth. Gently the girl looked in, and then put her hand on his throat and whispered a few words. The pain in his mouth and throat vanished. His eyes went wide and he hurriedly felt his mouth, but his excitement fell again.

"I'm sorry, I could only heal it, not grow it back," the girl said.

The boy shook his head, trying to tell her that it was fine, it was okay. His face was smudged with dried blood, fresh and shiny on his chin and neck, dark on his shirt. He cast his eyes up again, watching the girl. He needed to stay with her.

"Did they take your parents?" she asked.

He nodded.

"I'm guessing that the last you'll ever see of them, then, huh?"

Again he nodded. He looked up at the girl, and silently decided that he was going to tail her, follow her, never leave her side. He was pretty sure she had parents, and that she came by food a lot more often than he would. Plus, food itself now presented a problem for him, even if he managed to get his hands on it.

"You can stay with me," she said, as if reading his thoughts. "I'll help you out. Just remember to keep your head down."

Again he agreed.

"Your name's Link, right?" she asked.

He nodded.

"I'm Zelda," she said, extending a hand. Her left hand.

He extended his in return. "I thought so," she said, as she slipped back his sleeve and found the glowing piece of Courage. "I'm the same. See?" Indeed, her hand held the same symbol, the lower left triangle lit instead of the bottom right. "Explains a few things, doesn't it?"

Still Link said nothing, only watched her in awe. Another Bearer? He'd thought he was alone, his parents had told him it was his job to bring right to the world and find Wisdom. But instead she'd found him.

"Come on, Link. If we stay out here much longer somebody will tell on us and then we're in huge trouble."

And so the little boy followed, silently wondering how she knew his name, and just what else she knew.


	3. Chapter 3

**Middle of Part 1: (The following takes place around a year or more after Link and Zelda first met)**

_Fire, fire high and everywhere. And in the middle of it, a dark man on a dark horse, racing after a woman clutching a child on horseback. The little girl, the child, turns and holds out her hand. The fire is deafening, growing louder, only to be made seemingly gentle at the harsh victory laugh of the man, thundering as he keeps chase._

Zelda sat bolt upright in bed. How had that been? She lifted her hand to her head. It had been so scary—

Suddenly she found another thought in her head. The same thought, the scared-of-the-nightmare-thought. But different. Greener. A little deeper in the pitch of the voice it had been thought in. Not thought in quite the same words.

And now, again, a thought wondering what this other thought had come from. Except this thought was saying the other thought had been blue and purple. And Zelda-y.

It thought that. It thought the other thought had been Zelda-y.

_Wait, I'm purple and blue?_ Thought Zelda.

_I'm green?_ Thought the other voice.

Zelda reached into the other thought to try and see if she could find out where it was. And the information, the visual, came to her seen right through the thinker's eyes.

The other person was in Link's bed.

The other person jumped, got scared. _No! Go away!_ it thought, and walls sprung up and Zelda was alone in her head again.

She lay there thinking all of it over and eventually fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Ending of Part 1 (the following takes place almost 10 years after Zelda and Link first established a telepathic connection. Link has since gone on a Quest to speak with the Goddesses, and has been gone for 2 years.)**

It had been raining all week, pouring, day in and day out. And out there, somewhere, was a lonely traveler, awash in the downpour, making his way to the outskirts of town.

Zelda knew that. She could feel him, tell that he was close, closer than he'd been in two years. So she sat under one of the eves and waited.

Slowly, a shadow disentangled itself from the forest and walked forward, streaked by the rain. Zelda came out from her own shelter to approach him. He'd gotten taller, as had she. He'd also gotten leaner, his hair shaggier. Every inch of him was soaked to the bone.

_Zelda._ His consciousness was wearied from travel, and she could feel it as he spoke to her.

"Link," she returned.

_If you don't come with me you will be flooded out._

"What?"

_It's the Goddesses, Zelda, they're flooding Hyrule._

"What? Link, no they're not."

_Yes they are, Zelda, what do you think all this rain is? I went to each of the six sages of the world and was given a prophesy. The future of Hyrule lies beneath the waves."_

"Link…"

_You know it too, Zelda, the Goddesses are mad. Their own favored people have rejected them, smeared their names, and executed any who stood for them. And they've had it. They're going to wash away with rain the people who tried to wash away their names with blood._

"Link, please."

_I'm serious, Zelda! It's not going to stop raining! The only hope we have is in the highlands._

"Link, did you try and reason with them?"

Zelda felt an indignant rushing crackle from Link. Of course he didn't.

"Can't you maybe do something to stop it?"

_Zelda, do you really believe there's any way?_

"Link! You're the one who went and talked to the sages, why wouldn't you know?"

_Zelda, it's the Goddesses. Who am I to mess with their will?_

"How do you know they didn't intend for you to do something?"

He glared at Zelda beneath the rain.

"You could save them, Link!"

_Zelda, why on earth would I want to? They whipped me, silenced me, orphaned me, cast me out. They made my life a living hell._

"Your anger blinds you!"

_As does your love! How could you possibly make peace with a people so vicious?_

"Link, they're not all torturers."

_ Really? Then where were they when a five-year-old was flogged in the Town Square? Where were they when he watched his parents dragged off to be killed and his tongue was cut out? Where were they, time and again, when evil had its way? Nowhere! What's the point in believing they exist?_

"Link, please…"

_No, Zelda. There's no hope for them._

"How can you claim to know that?"

Link wheeled on Zelda, fury full force now. He withheld the urge to hit her. Instead he looked about for anything else to take his anger out on. He found nothing. His shoulders rose and fell in rage.

_Zelda, please. If you do not come with me you will be flooded out. I can't let that happen to you._

"I will not forsake my people."

_Zelda, please!_

"I won't, Link! I'm not coming. Someone has to help them."

_Zelda, this is the end._

She shook her head, the rain hiding her tears as they spilled over.

_Come with me, Zelda, we can find somewhere to make a new life._ He took her hand, ever so gingerly, caressingly, like all the gestures he'd wanted to make to her and never had, because of time, of separation, of nerves, of formality.

"Link, I'm not coming."

Link dropped her hand, his eyes gone cold. _I'd say your words leave a bitter taste in my mouth, _he hissed into her mind, _but I haven't tasted anything in half a decade._

Bitterness, regret, and hurt tore at her, all coming from him. One part of Link was broken. Zelda was the only friend, the only family, he had. He'd been alone his whole life. And yet she did not want him. And Zelda could feel another part of him, grinding its teeth in rage as it stared her down. _Traitor._

Link could tell that she was crying, even through the rain. _I owe you, _he said, taking another step closer to her, where her shoulders rose and fell in withheld sobs and her clothing was soaking through quickly.

In an impulsive movement, Link wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. She buried her face into his soaked chest. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm so, so, sorry."

_I am, too._ Link gently kissed her on the top of the head.

"I promise," she said, "That when you come back, nobody will chase you."

_While you're promising the impossible, why don't you say I'll have my tongue back, too?_

Zelda's heart broke. How could he be so warm, so cold, so warm again, and slash at her heart again? She took a step back, breaking from his embrace. "Link, please, understand," she begged.

_Please, Zelda, come with me._

"No."

Link watched her for a moment. She was crying, broken, wishing everything for him while he both ached for her and rejected her.

_That's it, then, _Link said, and waved once before turning back to the rain and back to the shadows.

"Link, please!" she yelled, but he didn't hear her for the rain. Please, why couldn't he understand how impossible he was? The boy with no tongue, who couldn't be just one thing, who had to make her hate him while wanting only the best for him, to insult her while he held her in his arms.

"Link!" she yelled again, but the downpour deafened her words. Now she realized why he didn't turn.

For the longest time, since they were children, a telepathic bond had linked them, enabling Link to speak to Zelda and for Zelda to always, always have Link, no matter what. No matter rain, wind, murder, through breakins and kidnappings, she's always had that link to him. That link to Link.

But it was gone now. That's why he didn't turn, that's why he kept walking. His ears didn't hear and neither did his mind.

He must've broken it. Broken the bond.

So much. They had been through so much. They'd weathered the end times as they crashed overhead, weathered their broken yet happy childhoods shattered into oblivion like pots cast into shards on the floor, with the dead Sheikah who had been their guardians and protectors among the pieces.

All that. All those things. And Link walked away.


	5. Chapter 5

**Opening of Part 2 (The following takes place another 10 years later. Link has not returned. Zelda has organized a revolution and overthrown the tyrant and become Queen of a new Hyrule.)**

A yell broke the silence of the great hall. Queen Zelda watched as her court stirred uneasily. She had just sent for the man who had been reported to be screaming his head off in the dungeons. None of her people longed to be in the presence of a madman. The howling neared, accompanied by cussing of the guards restraining the man. He was bloody strong, and bloody loud. Even worse, his maddened screams were nothing like a normal person's. They were wilder, more desperate, and uncontrolled. And they never held any words.

The door to the throne room was kicked open, and in was dragged the prisoner. His shirt was stained to a brownish grey, the back pink with blood. Long, dirty hair shadowed a ghastly, sleepless face.

"Your majesty, he is completely insane, please excuse him. We ask for you permission to end his misery. Whatever his condition, he is utterly inconsolable." One of the guards not restraining the man said with a bow as they flung the shackled prisoner into the center of the court. There he lay, still and quiet for the first time since they caught him.

_You promised me they wouldn't chase me._

Zelda jolted, shocked at the all too familiar voice coming through a long lost telepathic connection. "Show me your sword hand," she ordered, disbelieving.

The man obliged, holding up a fist upon which breathed the Triforce of Courage. He looked her in the eye through bloodied bangs. _Is that any way to welcome a friend, ordering them around, Zelda_?

_Is this anyway to present yourself? You've been screaming your head off in the dungeon for days,_ she said back, her eyes fired. She tried to blaze her words into his mind as he did into hers, but he was so much better at this telepathy thing. He'd had so much practice from when they were children.

_I tried to be civil, and they taunted me. "Cat got your tongue?" So I snuck in after dark, hoping to meet you in private somewhere, without any trouble. I didn't know you marked mutes as suspicious. If I knew that, I never would have come._

_Link…._ Zelda's voice across the connection was tender, whispering. But, knowing she had to secure him bedding, she addressed the court. "Is that you, Link?"

_No shit, Sherlock._

_ Link, just go with me. Nod. Or else I won't be able to get you out of the dungeons._

_ It's actually quite nice down there. Very echoey. _Link nodded.

"It has been five years, some of you might remember," Zelda spoke up, addressing the court, "since we began the revolution to overthrow the tyrant Precipice. It has also been five years since my childhood friend here, Link, walked the stones of this city. He saved my life as a child and showed great valiance in resisting Precipice. As a result, his tongue was cut out, and this is why he has not spoken a word. He hasn't spoken a word for some ten years. His valiance, courage, determination, and fearlessness are what ultimately inspired me to begin an underground. That very courage with which he infected me then returned to infect all of you, as, together, we restored Hyrule to order and to peace. In this way, we owe this young man. He has a scarred heart and possibly, a scarred mind-"

_Oh Zelda, couldn't resist that one, could you?_

"—and it was those things, among the ghosts of his torturers, which drove him out of our town. He does not trust because he has been betrayed by all he has trusted. With this you must understand his distress, his resistance to imprisonment and his lack of faith in release. I am indebted to him, and remained indebted to him during the time he was missing."

_Missing? Ha. If you wanted to know where I was going, you could have come._

_Link, if I hadn't stayed the Goddesses would have flooded Hyrule._

Zelda could hear Link grumbling something about, _"Sure, and if I hadn't been around to keep the heads on dragons it wouldn't have made a difference."_

"Please, welcome this man as you would welcome my brother, for indeed, he is such to me—"

_Wait, are you friend-zoning me?_

"Give him a room and give him food and please, treat him well, he has never known hospitality. He is a man of virtue, I swear it."

The guards on either side of Link bowed and picked the man up by the shoulders to haul him off. Link screamed once more, reaching out, a sudden panic knifing Zelda's mind.

"I will come talk to you later, brother Link, do not worry. No one here will hurt you, I promise."

_Promise!? What on earth are your promises good for?!_ Link shouted to her mind, but let the guards lead him, his heart still pounding escape instincts froming a doez plans Zelda glimpsed at before the door shut His thoughts sketched angles of jumps to window and the uses of curtains and suits of armor on the all until he was gone.

They took him to a room and unfettered him, and a servant came in and hastily heated water. Link sat, brooding, as he waited for her. He was in a stormy mood, and Zelda could sense it from where she still sat. _Stupid Zelda, talking to them as if I wasn't there…can't really blame her, but I have a right to be mad. And I'm gonna be mad, Zelda, and I know you can hear me._

_Link, I'm trying to work._

_Zelda, I'm trying to think._

"There you are, sir, nice and hot," the maidservant said pleasantly. "Is all to your liking here, sir?"

Link nodded politely.

"Is there anything else you need, sir?"

Link plucked at his clothes and gave her a questioning look.

"Oh yes, sir, there are fresh ones right over here."

Link plucked his clothes again, pretended to rifle through his pockets.

"I beg your pardon, sir." She was shock-white, terrified that she had no clue what he was suggesting.

Link shook his head and waved her off.

"If you'd like, I could get an interpreter."

Link shook his head again, trying to signal that it was no big deal, he didn't mind a whole lot, it wasn't urgent, he was eager to bathe, but the maid missed all of it.

"If you need anything at all, sir, the whole staff and I will be on call."

Link bowed his thanks to her.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all, sir."

With that the maid curtsied and left. Link undressed and eased into the hot water with a sigh. It felt so wonderful…

_Link, you need to relearn how to guard your thoughts. I'm getting everything over here._

_I beg your pardon, your majesty. Anyway, don't drop in for a bit, K? I haven't had a hot bath in…goodness…I don't even care to count._

_Try to remember how to guard your thoughts a bit, though, you are sending me EVERYTHING._

_Yeah, yeah, I'll figure that out. But I'm trying to relax here, do you mind?_

There was a sigh from the other end. Link grinned. He always could get on her nerves.

_I heard that!_

Link laughed. _I'd like my stuff back, too. I have no clue where it is, and the maid didn't understand me. But that can wait...until after my bath…_

Link sat in the wooden tub until his fingers wrinkled and then he got to washing. Freshened up, he put on the clothes left for him. And was sure to let Zelda know.

_I really wonder what kind of trouble there is to get into around here….._

_ Link, no._

The young man chuckled deeply. _I was joking. I figured I'd liven up your Queenly tasks. I need to talk with you. Preferably when your not distracted by…paperwork, is it?_

_ Building a country an idiot like you can walk around free in is no easy task. It comes with plenty of chores. Please, don't make it harder than it has to be._

_ Doesn't a sister want to spend time with her brother?_

_ Link, please remember we are not actually related._

_ Of course not, your majesty. Who would suggest such a thing? Oh, that's right. You._

Zelda tried to disguise it, but Link heard her mumble "_Jackass," _all the same. He laughed to himself and perused through a few books. They weren't all that interesting. There was too much script for Link. But there were bound to be more in Zelda's chambers, he thought, and whittled away the time finding his way there and then rifling through and discarding every book in the room. He plopped down on the bed with her diary at long last thoroughly intrigued.

"Are we prepared to act civil, now?" Zelda announced as she strode through the door.

_Perhaps. I sort of lost that ability when Faron the water dragon threw me against a wall. Speaking of which, she wants to see you._ He responded, rifling through the entries, which were sporadic.

"What?"

_Faron, the water dragon, guardian of Faron woods. She wants to see you._

Zelda blanched. "What for?"

_No idea. She just told me to tell you._

"Was she….angry?"

_Well, the run-in before last she threw me against a wall and threatened to shred both Hylian flesh and society, but I think she's perfectly jolly._

_ Link, please._

_ Please what?_

_ You don't need to be so harsh._

_ Really?_

"Link!"

Link flinched at her shout, harsh and raw and immediate in his mind. _Hey, Zelda, easy…_

"What do you mean, 'easy'?! You're the one having a go at me every single chance you get, the one lounging about in my chambers without permission—"

_ They smell nice._

"Don't—wait, what?"

_Your room smells nice._

_ Link, you don't have a sense of smell._

_ Excuse me, princess, but I do have some. And besides, can't I imagine that they smell nice?_ He tele-mumbled something about how they must've smelled like her and whatever she smelled like it must've been nice, and hung his head upside down on the bed, her diary plopped open on her stomach.

"Why were you reading that?"

_I wasn't. I was merely admiring your handwriting._

"You really are an idiot."

_Zelda, it's not nice to insult mute people. Just because we can't speak doesn't mean we are unintelligent._

"Link, it's not nice to read people's diaries, enter their chambers without permission, interrupt their work, or insult them for looking out for you."

Link was silent at this. He handed her the diary.

"Thank you."

Still Link said nothing, only stared at the ceiling.

"So, how were your travels?" Zelda asked, sitting on the bed.

_Faron wants to see you._

"I know. How were your travels?"

_Uneventful. Faron wants to see you._

"You're sulking."

Link kept his flabby trap shut.

"That's not going to make me feel bad for getting back at you. You deserved it. I won't be walked all over."

Link rolled over to face her.

"I am Queen, after all."

_Thanks for saving my ass, _Link finally said.

"Glad I could help. And thank you for the swearingly honest language in front of the Queen of your country. You were so chatty just few moments ago, why the sudden silence?"

_Five years, Zelda. It's been five years._

"….and?"

_Will you take me back?_

"Link, for the love of all that is good in this world, don't make me say it again. Of course. I already told the court I consider you my brother."

Again, Link said nothing.

"Honestly, Link, is it Faron?"

_Yeah, she's not happy._

"Why?"

_Probably because I'm annoying._ He rolled back over again._ She's just testy in general, and she got really riled about the Hylians rejecting the Goddesses and all that. She might try to take it out on you._

"Better me than the people."

_I won't let her._

"Link!"

_I swear, Zelda. I'm not letting anything happen to you._

"Not letting anything except you happen to me, don't you mean. And that's enough to drive anybody crazy."

Again, Link watched the wall. Aggravated, Zelda shook his shoulder. _Link…_ she whispered. _Come on, clamming up won't solve anything._

She was met with more silence. The boy had remembered how to hide his thoughts, or he'd never forgotten and had been purposely nagging her earlier. Most likely the latter.

Cutting her losses, Zelda dug into the boy's mind. She found a network of echoing words: _Five years, five years._ She sighed and drew back again. He was good at secrecy, as bad as she knew all this silence was for him.

"Come on, Link. Please." She shook his shoulder again.

_You're right. I'm an idiot and a jackass. And I left you, high-tailed it for high ground and left you to face the flood. And you…you became Queen, became—_

Link managed to cut off the thought before clearly sending it to Zelda, but the thing about telepathy was that all the baby thoughts tagged along, every sentence filled with echoes of the next one forming. And so Zelda heard what Link almost said.

_Became some gorgeous woman…_

"Is that it, Link, really?"

_Shut it, Zelda, _he tele-mumbled.

"You're mad because I'm suddenly attractive?"

_Stop jumping to conclusions! I never said that!_

_ Oh, but you thought it, didn't you, Link? Jealous, are we? Are you afraid you'll lose to some respectable nobleman?_

_ I know I'll lose, _Link grumbled, not meaning Zelda to hear it but sending it all the same. He was a horribly tele-thought sending fellow almost every time the subject was her instead of him.

Zelda chuckled. She could feel Link's resent of their telepathy, for Zelda, having speech, had so much more control over it than him sometimes. He was subject to her picking up things he didn't want her to, while she could just speak out loud and watch herself much more easily. The boy rolled over, face down into the blanket, an all too familiar curse forming in his mind.

_Stupid tongue. Stupid Precipice. _

Zelda looked at his back and remembered the pink blood that had stained it earlier. "They whipped you?"

_Yeah. You've done a pretty good job retraining them, though. The guards I knew from old times would have put a hot iron to my neck, burnt the voice outta me. And then they'd have flogged me to my bones. And killed me at some point once they'd extracted all the pain the could from me._

Zelda laid a hand between Link's shoulders. He flinched. She channeled herself for a moment and healed away the stripes.

_You've gotten better at that,_ he said.

_ I learned a lot over the years._

_ Me too._

_ Really?_ Zelda couldn't resist giving him a taste of his own snark, though it was lost on him.

_ Yup. I have my own kind of magic, I like to think. Calming even the wildest beasts, until the wolves themselves invite me to join them in singing._

_ Did you join them?_

_ Of course. It's not as if they care about your pitch._

Zelda smiled. _It's good to know you weren't alone._

_ And it's good to know you didn't drown. _He rolled over again, to stare at her with blue eyes that had failed to change over the years. A memory shuddered across her vision. Link, five years old, his chin shiny with blood, face smudged with the dirty brown of dried blood cut through by tear tracts.

_I saw that,_ he said.

_Me too. _Her tone was gentle now. As long as they'd known each other, she wondered if she really knew the boy before her. She slipped her hand into his, thinking back on the last time they'd parted, his ice and his warmth back to back, two inconsolable sides made one. What could do that to a person?

_And you're the one who says I need to guide my thoughts,_ Link said.

Zelda smiled, laughed a little bit as she raised a hand to wipe the tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so, so sorry."

_Hey, Zelda, you built a kingdom I can live in._

"With jailers that still whip you."

_Hey, I can take a flogging. I've had my share. I bloody scared all the other prisoners, because I was only silent when I was being beaten. They thought me bat shit mad._

_ Crazy. The term is 'bat shit crazy'._

_ Sorry. I've been living away from any linguistic society for five years. I'm a little behind the word._

_ Times._

Link smiled. Even if Zelda would never correct anybody out loud, she thought her corrections loud enough for him to hear them. Sometimes he misspoke just to make her do that. Correct him. He squeezed her hand.

_Some sort of crazy we are, huh?_

"Yeah."

_Really though, I was crud to you when I left. Acting like I loved you one second and like I hated you the next._

"Yeah," she said quietly, sniffling, wiping her face again.

He squeezed her hand tighter. _Thank you for not hating me._

"Don't mention it."

There was a moment of silence that they both let pass unguarded. Link thought of nothing but the complacency of that moment and Zelda thought of the quiet happiness and the quiet pain, all of the memories. The memories they shared, the memories Link alone held. So much pain. She never wanted to let Link go even as she realized then how much hurt it entailed.

Link's mind wandered, unguarded to Zelda's presence. It wandered briefly to Faron before quickly redirecting from the worry of that thought. He sighed unconsciously, the sigh of a laden heart, before inadvertently thinking of the prominence of his chest to where Zelda was now.

She laughed out loud at the crudeness of his thought. Link smiled.

"Goodness, Link, your pecks aren't THAT great," she said, throwing her head back to laugh.

_But hey, come on, _Link said. _Sleeping with the wolves and the wild things can get you pretty ripped._

"Or pretty malnourished."

Link shrugged and sat up. _I guess I fared well then._

"Yeah, Sherlock, you did."

Link's forehead creased. _Did you just call me Sherlock?_

"Yeah, why?"

_Was that a compliment or is there a man I don't know about?_

"It's a saying, idiot."

_Oh, right. Not being around a linguistic society and all that._

"Idiot. You used it earlier this morning."

_So I did,_ Link said, smiling.

Zelda laughed again

_No really, though, _Link said, _is there anybody else?_

"Nope," Zelda said, popping the sound of the P in 'Nope'.

_Good,_ Link said, putting one hand on her shoulder and pulling her towards him ever so slightly, then leaning in the rest of the distance and placing his mouth on hers. _Because I love you,_ he said. _I love you so much you make me ice and warm back to back and you're the reason I came back and I never should have left. I owe you my life and the least I can do is give you everything I have and ever will have._

Zelda's side was mostly electricity and butterflies. He was open to her too, and she could taste the deep sadness of grief he didn't understand and the raw heat of his love for her.

_You're impossible to love,_ she said. _But I love you._

_You're the only one who knows me, _he said, leaning in more.

_I'm the Queen of a country, Link. How many people do you think really know me?_

_Hmmm….not many? May I count myself among the lucky few?_

_May you? Link, we're making out. I thought that was a given._

_Does it count as making out when one of us doesn't have a tongue?_

_Yes, Link, it does._

_Good. Oh, and since I'm probably pretty bad at kissing, you know, no tongue_, _I promise to make up for it._

And with that he fell against her and together they fell against the bed.


	6. Chapter 6

**End of Part 2 (This is effectively an epilogue.)**

Zelda hushed the little swaddled baby as she fussed absentmindedly in her sleep. She was enough of new mother to not know that's what the little girl had been doing and worried she would wake. Zelda smiled at the precious thing and sang a quiet tune to lull it into dreaming, lowering it ever so gingerly into the crib.

Link had been a dear these past few weeks. (Had he heard that? God, if he'd heard her thinkingly call him that she'd never hear the end of it.) He'd been taking care of the business of ruling so Zelda could attend to the sleepless task of new mother. Of course, he was also a sleepless new father, but he got the days off for the most bit. And really, he had been such a dear about the whole thing, not snapping when she mumbled exhausted in the middle of the night for him to check the baby when she thought she'd heard it crying and had only been dreaming. He didn't fuss or snap, just slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the nursery where the attending nurse was also sleeping, as the baby was usually just fine.

Zelda had requested, late in her pregnancy, to do the main load of caring for the new baby herself. She'd been orphaned young and denied the touch of her mother, and she didn't want the same for her child, whatever wet nurses existed. And Link was such a dear, really, that he'd made the whole thing possible.

It had been working, too. Since they'd gotten engaged many of the staff had learned enough sign language for Link to get by on between that and his writing. Of course, a standardized sign language was being developed. Link had been sure to tell Zelda a mute King had done wonders for the deaf of the kingdom.

Sometimes Zelda had to keep up the pretense of knowing a lot of sign language in order to convince the people she and Link didn't communicate solely through stares, or else Zelda talked aloud to herself and magically inserted bits that Link apparently said. Most hadn't bought the telepathy bit, as it was a pretty unheard of phenomenon.

Zelda finished the last few bits of the lullaby. She felt Link's presence hovering in the doorway.

_Hey,_ he said when she turned, _I know that song._

_What of it?_ she said back. Even telepathically they were whispering, for fear of somehow waking a not-telepathic baby.

_I remember it._

_You do? From where?_

Link shot her the memory briefly—he knew she shared it, even though she hadn't known her future husband had been shivering beneath the window, just in earshot of the music.

_Oh,_ Zelda said.

_Yeah,_ Link said. _I didn't mean to keep that memory from you, I'd all but forgotten it is all._

_You have an incredible memory for music if you remember it from just that once._

_Well, it's a bit of strong memory. Shared, too, that might have something to do with it._ He slipped his arm around her as they headed down the hall to the royal chambers.

_It's the Ballad of the Goddess backwards, made to preserve the Ballad of the Goddess in the time of Precipice._

_I know,_ Link said, smiling.

Zelda rolled her eyes. _I guess you read that from my mind too?_

_Not actually sure,_ Link said, _maybe I'm just musically adept enough to reverse it in my head and also recognize that tune I've heard maybe once._

_ And let me guess, next you're going to tell me you play the ocarina._

_ Nope,_ Link said. _Not having a tongue made that a little intimidating. Harp._

_ I knew that._ Zelda said, looking at him. _And I also play the harp._

_ And I knew that too,_ Link said.

Zelda rolled her eyes. _What don't you know, then?_

Link smiled. _Why were you singing it backwards? The Ballad isn't outlawed anymore._

Zelda shrugged. _Continuing the legacy, I guess. That and it's still really pretty backwards._

_ Makes me think of you,_ Link said.

_What, the song?_

_ Yeah. That and anything to do with the idea of 'pretty'._

_ Link, there's no need to flatter me. We're already married._

_ I'm just being honest._

Zelda rolled her eyes.

_What, if you don't believe me, go ahead and read me. Find a lie and baby duty is on me._

Zelda couldn't help but smile. They were in the royal chambers now, and she let herself fall into Link the littlest bit as she looked through his mind. Sure enough, the idea of anything at all that was pretty connected back to her. Flowers springing up in the roadside mud, tapestries in the castle halls that had been hanging there for decades, the sunrise over Lake Flora from back when he was wandering, the spray from the fairy fountain when they'd sought refuge there as kids, so many random things, all tied back to her, her hair, her face, her eyes, the way she turned to him when she'd had her back to him—it was actually kind of ridiculous. Really, really ridiculous.

_No lie,_ she said.

_Ha! See? I told you! But really, if you still want baby duty to be on me it's fine._

_ Link, really, what's the point of making up conditions like that if you'll just cede to them no matter what?_

Link grinned. _The point is making you say sentences like that. Sentences with the word cede._


End file.
